


Young and Beautiful

by Azure_K_Mello



Series: Scrutiny and Speculation: The Media Series [5]
Category: Smallville
Genre: Established Relationship, Love, M/M, Secret Identity
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-05-12
Updated: 2013-05-12
Packaged: 2017-12-11 16:41:23
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,670
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/800873
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Azure_K_Mello/pseuds/Azure_K_Mello
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Set two years after “Australia is for Lovers” Lex starts to worry that he isn’t aging.</p><p>Note: This is the fifth in a series. If you haven’t read the other parts you will miss some of the references.</p><p>Clark’s Age : 34</p>
            </blockquote>





	Young and Beautiful

Diana did indeed take over Metropolis. Clark took on bigger projects. He brought relief packages that couldn’t be easily transported to all over the world. Places in Africa where previously had been unreachable and had relief airdropped now received supplies from Clark’s hands. He took on huge fires by himself, earth quakes, alien threats. He didn’t worry about the individuals as much. The Justice League did group work and Clark covered everything while they dealt with their individual cities. And he was happier.

Lex watched his husband sleep. Every night he would lie for hours watching Clark breathe. Clark didn’t have nightmares, ever. If he looked anxious when unconscious it meant he heard something happening far away. He would usually wake up, pull on shoes, and slide back into bed a half hour later saying, “I didn’t mean to wake you, volcano was about to erupt, I bought the villagers about a week, told them to move. Go back to bed, baby.” And then he would slide back into sleep, easily, no worrying, no tossing and turning, he would just fall asleep. Lex, who had worried for the thirty minutes Clark had been gone, would watch him. He would count the breaths, watching Clark’s chest. There was no worry in Clark and he looked so young; he looked sixteen again.

But then, even when awake, Clark looked young. He didn’t look to be thirty-four, early twenties at the oldest. Lex had wondered about that, he noticed in the mirror that he himself had stopped looking his age. He looked thirty, not forty. He had asked Clark about it in passing, who had asked the AI. Outside of the Chinese vase incident the day was one of the most terrifying that Lex remembered. 

Clark came home from his fortress and gave Lex a tired smile, “You may not like it.”

“I’m bracing myself, just tell me.”

“The AI isn’t just a computer, it also has the imprint of my biological mother.” 

“I know that.”

“God, don’t interrupt, Lex, please. Please, I… apparently it scanned all of humanity when it came into consciousness. It catalogued everything; it read people right down to their atoms. And, I guess, the part that was my mother worried about me, worried about me being alone. So it analyzed the people and found that I didn’t need to be alone here. There were twenty-six possible mates on earth for me.” The word was spat with disgust. 

“It calculated that, by last year, I would have met every one of the twenty-six. And when it saw that you and I were the ones left, it accepted you.” He stopped, began to pace but Lex knew not to speak. “People like me live normal length lives on my planet, they’re normal people, no flying, or crazy eyes, or any of the rest of it. They’re normal. But on this planet, I’m going to live three times the average life span. All because of the fucking sun.

“That woman, Cassandra, she didn’t see the future, Lex. She saw a future. And for me she saw my worst nightmare, being alone. Being completely alone. That’s what happens if you live two hundred and fifty years: everyone you love dies. Recently, I thought maybe it wouldn’t matter, that the time I could steal with you would make up for all the years alone. But it decided that things didn’t need to be that way. You’re not really aging anymore. It actually took a few years off. And I argued with it, Lex. I tried, but I don’t know how to fix this.” Clark gripped his sides, a mock hug, as though he could not expect any comfort to come from Lex and so had to provide it for himself. “‘I’m sorry’ doesn’t even start to cover this one.”

Lex stood and wrapped his arms tightly around his husband, “We can steal the years together, and it will hurt, and it will break, but we’ll be together. Neither of us will ever be alone.”

Almost sounding angry Clark said, “This isn’t like a vampire novel! This isn’t all youth and perfect immortality, you’ll age at an eighth of the human rate, and you will watch everyone you love die. There won’t be a Bruce or a Mercy. You’ll live for two hundred and fifty years but be physically in your seventies when you die!” 

“Clark, I understand, and it’s awful, but… we can handle it. Together we’re the stuff of legends, remember? It’s true that this wasn’t my fear; I just thought everyone would abandon me and I would end up totally cold. But I understand why this is your fear, and why it’s not a choice either of us would make. I’ll talk to Lara, if you like, see if she won’t do something to make it better for both of us.”

“Really?”

“It might listen to me; I’m not her son. Let me change into warm clothes, and we can go to Antarctica.” Clark had kissed his mouth gently as Lex had let go of him. “No matter what, we’ll be okay.” Lex changed into a sweater and warm boots. As he tied his laces he felt Clark slip onto the bed, kissing his neck and stroking his arms, “Hey,” he said softly leaning back.

“Thank you,” said Clark. 

“For what?”

“Not freaking out.” He continued to kiss and stroke Lex’s skin. “I’m freaking out and you’re being calm.”

“I’m actually getting quite excited,” Lex responded as Clark’s hands drifted to his lap. “Honestly, if you don’t cut it out now we’re not getting to the fortress today. And while I would love to stay in bed with you for the rest of the afternoon and night, it won’t achieve much.”

Clark slid off the bed and walked to the balcony. “You ready?” 

Lex didn’t much like the fortress. It was just so… alien. There was nothing recognizably earthly about it. It felt wrong and out of place. The angles didn’t seem quick right and the opaque nature of the walls was unsettling. Light filtered through on unnatural frequencies. And it didn’t feel like a place where Clark should be at ease. Even with all of Clark’s stuff littered around it felt impersonal, like the castle had felt to Lex even when he lived there. It set his teeth on edge. 

In the entrance was a huge monument to Lara and Jor El. Statues of them held up a globe of Krypton. And it was intimating as opposed to beautiful. The faces of the statue were serious and cut in harsh lines and Lex hoped the sculpture wasn’t good. Because he’d seen the Polaroid of Lara, and she looked kind and soft, like a mother: not this stern creature. 

“Hello, Lex Luthor,” Lara El’s voice came from all around him. 

“AI,” he responded coldly. Clark left, aware that Lex didn’t want an audience. 

“What a thing to call your mother-in-law.”

“You aren’t his mother; you’re an imprint of his dead biological mother. A real mother wouldn’t have put her son under this sort of stress.”

“I gave him his husband for the span of his life.”

“I’m not arguing with that. But a real mother would have lied through her teeth. She wouldn’t have said that she made a decision, that she guided him towards possible mates and then genetically changed the man he chose. She would have told him that he and I were perfectly matched. That as he found me our essence mingled and allowed us to bond as one. That we were meant to be together forever. That this isn’t the curse he views it as. That it was natural for your people and that I was bound to be here with him. She would have made it a plausible scientifically fairytale. Whereas you have made him feel responsible for what he views as a perversion. A mother wouldn’t put this on her son. So here’s what you’ll do.” 

“You want me to change you back?” the computer’s voice sneered as it interrupted.

“No, I want him for as long as possible. I don’t want him to be alone.” He outlined his plan, that Clark’s friends and family would live slightly longer than average lives, that they would not be ravaged by age. Yes, they would age but comfortably without hip issues or cancer or natural blindness, that Lara would guide her son to good people, kind immortals, people he could trust and care for, always many humans but more creatures like himself. “Don’t say you can’t do this. I know you claim that you cannot interfere with human destiny; you claim you cannot give us cures to diseases but you have proven you can in changing me. You will be subtle in this and it won’t change things in the long run but it will make his life happier and isn’t that what you want?”

“Yes.”

Lex left the room, finding Clark in what passed for a master bedroom, Clark never spent time here. He said it wasn’t home. He said it made him ache to know his people and that the fortress wasn’t a good enough approximation to be of any comfort. Clark had his eyes shut and Lex said, “Sorted.” 

Clark sat up, a smile bright on his face. “She fixed you?”

“No, she won’t back down from that.” Lex lied. “But she’s going to make all or friends live longer, not age so harshly, she going to make sure good people are always drawn to you, other immortals and humans who will not hurt us. She’s going to make it bearable.”

“But it’s still not right; it isn’t natural.”

Lex shrugged, “Just because it’s not right does not mean it’s categorically wrong. It’ll be alright, I promise. Let’s just go home and not worry. It’s only a problem if we view it as one. All this means is that neither of us is alone and I will not see that as a bad thing.”


End file.
